Aeronautical Vehicles Commons^™

Aerodynamic And Performance Analysis Of A Morphing Helicopter Rotor System, Vinay Gopal Krishnan

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of rotor morphing, specifically variable rotor speed and variable blade twist, on various parameters such as the distribution of angle of attack, lift, power, thrust and/or other metrics describing the performance of a helicopter rotor. A MATLAB based blade element theory model was developed and executed for different flight conditions. The model was validated against the flight test data of a UH-60. Effects on power, lift to drag ratio and rotor drag from variations in blade twist, rotor speed, rotor radius and blade chord was analyzed. Morphing cases were applied …

A Study On The Control, Dynamics, And Hardware Of Micro Aerial Biomimetic Flapping Wing Vehicles, Siara Hunt

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Biological flight encapsulates 400 million years of evolutionary ingenuity and thus is the most efficient way to fly. If an engineering pursuit is not adhering to biomimetic inspiration, then it is probably not the most efficient design. An aircraft that is inspired by bird or other biological modes of flight is called an ornithopter and is the original design of the first airplanes. Flapping wings hold much engineering promise with the potential to produce lift and thrust simultaneously. In this research, modeling and simulation of a flapping wing vehicle is generated. The purpose of this research is to develop a …

Overview Of The Saber Mission And Launch Vehicle Design, Benjamin Thompson, Jared Fuchs, Oakley Copeland, Aaron Hunt, Matthew Haskell, William Hankins, Logan Anderson

Von Braun Symposium Student Posters

No abstract provided.

Develop Pucp Microlab For Thinsat, Robert J. Twiggs

Robert "Bob" Twiggs STEM Education Collection

A PowerPoint Presentation created by Professor Bob Twiggs titled "Develop PUCP microlab for ThinSat" from October 17, 2017.

Payloads For Student Thinsat Satellites, Robert J. Twiggs

Robert "Bob" Twiggs STEM Education Collection

A PowerPoint Presentation created by Professor Bob Twiggs titled "Payloads for Student ThinSat Satellites" from October 2, 2017.

The Shaping Of Things That Are: How Airplane Windows Took Their Shape, Morgan Lopez

Student Works

Have you ever wondered why your airplane's windows are rounded? It is not for aesthetic appeal.

The first commercial jetliner windows' sole purpose was appearance; a squared window afforded an impressive view of the earth, but the view was not without consequence.

United States Drone Laws, Jacob Crittenden

Student Works

The purpose of this Directed Study was to investigate and compile the drone laws that exist within the United States, both on the federal level and for each individual state. The federal laws are directed by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) under laws that pertain to “Unmanned Aircraft Systems” (UAS) and are relatively new. Most states have further regulations on UAS that they have passed. Most of these laws are in place to protect public safety and privacy, but some also prohibit certain locations of flight and certain modifications that might be made to the platform. State laws that limit …

Students Reaching For The Stars Become The Next Generation Of International Leaders, Robert J. Twiggs

Robert "Bob" Twiggs STEM Education Collection

A PowerPoint Presentation created by Professor Bob Twiggs titled "Students reaching for the stars become the next generation of International Leaders" on September 22, 2017.

Students Reaching For The Stars Become The Next Generation Of International Leaders: Pucp 100 Year Anniversary - Part 1, Robert J. Twiggs

Robert "Bob" Twiggs STEM Education Collection

A PowerPoint Presentation created by Professor Bob Twiggs titled "Students reaching for the stars become the next generation of International Leaders: PUCP 100 Year Anniversary" from September 22, 2017.

Students Reaching For The Stars Become The Next Generation Of International Leaders: Pucp 100 Year Anniversary - Part 2, Robert J. Twiggs

Robert "Bob" Twiggs STEM Education Collection

A PowerPoint Presentation created by Professor Bob Twiggs titled "Students reaching for the stars become the next generation of International Leaders: PUCP 100 Year Anniversary" from Saptember 22, 2017.

Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (Uav): Flight Performance, Fevens Louis Jean

Student Works

It is important that when measuring the sideslip angle and angles of attack during flight test performance of a UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle), to fully understand that the Angles of attack and sideslip are parameters that aid in determining the safety of the flight as they improve stability and control of the aircraft. The disadvantage of the measurement of these angles using this method is low accuracy of measurement due to friction to the potentiometers in connection with the vanes. To counter this, a new sensing method was developed to minimize friction and collect more accurate data. The method is …

Tu-Pod: A Cube Satellite (Cubesat) And Tube Satellite Dispenser Produced Via 3d Printing, Successful Launch, Orbit And Dispensing Of Two Tube Satellites, Robert J. Twiggs, Matt Craft, Amin Djamshidpour, Chantal Cappelletti, Ken Biba, Stewart Davis

Robert "Bob" Twiggs STEM Education Collection

A PowerPoint Presentation created by Matt Craft, Amin Djamshidpour, Chantal Cappelletti, Bob Twiggs, Ken Biba, and Stewart Davis titled "TU-POD: A Cube Satellite (CubeSat) and Tube Satellite Dispenser Produced via 3D Printing, Successful Launch, Orbit and Dispensing of Two Tube Satellites" from August 6, 2017.

Using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (‘Drones’) To Collect Data From Tagged Fishers In The Environment, Vu A. Pham, Marc Horney, Aaron Drake

STAR Program Research Presentations

Fisher (Pekania pennant) belongs to the weasel family. In October 2014, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service proposed to list the West Coast Distinct Population Segment of fisher as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. We wish to better define where fishers live within their habitats and use that information to improve conservation efforts. Previously, to track the behavior of wild fishers, researchers put tracker collars on the animals and relied on networks of fixed antennas on the ground in the environment to collect data. We are experimenting with using unmanned aerial vehicles (‘drones’) to collect data …

Design, Development And Implementation Of Intelligent Algorithms To Increase Autonomy Of Quadrotor Unmanned Missions, Diego F. Garcia Herrera

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

This thesis presents the development and implementation of intelligent algorithms to increase autonomy of unmanned missions for quadrotor type UAVs. A six-degree-of freedom dynamic model of a quadrotor is developed in Matlab/Simulink in order to support the design of control algorithms previous to real-time implementation. A dynamic inversion based control architecture is developed to minimize nonlinearities and improve robustness when the system is driven outside bounds of nominal design. The design and the implementation of the control laws are described. An immunity-based architecture is introduced for monitoring quadrotor health and its capabilities for detecting abnormal conditions are successfully demonstrated through …

Providing A Unique Stem Education Opportunity With A Five-Day Eleo Mission, Robert J. Twiggs

Robert "Bob" Twiggs STEM Education Collection

A PowerPoint Presentation created by Professor Bob Twiggs titled "Providing a Unique STEM Education Opportunity with a Five-Day ELEO Mission" from July 18, 2017.

Bringing Space To The Classroom Through Stem Education Providing Extreme Low Earth Orbit Missions Using Thinsats, Robert J. Twiggs

Robert "Bob" Twiggs STEM Education Collection

An article written by Bob Twiggs and associates titled "Bringing Space to the Classroom Through STEM Education Providing Extreme Low Earth Orbit Missions Using ThinSats" from July 10, 2017.

Six Degrees Of Freedom From Six Degrees Of Separation: The History Of Flight Simulators, David Keck, Morgan Lopez

Publications

Some of today's advanced flight simulators have the capacity to provide pilots with experiences of six degrees of freedom: forward/backward, up/down, or left/right (or pitching, rolling, or yawing in either direction). These incredible devices are the product of over 100 years of design developments that come from a series of technological discoveries and historical events.

Static Testing Of Propulsion Elements For Small Multirotor Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, Robert W. Deters, S.C. Kleinke, Michael S. Selig

Publications

The growing use of small multirotor aircraft has increased the interest in having better performance results especially with the propulsion system. The size of the propellers used on these aircraft operate at low Reynolds numbers that are typically less than 200,000. Static performance testing of ten propeller pairs (tractor and pusher) were completed and is the beginning of a systematic test of propellers used on multirotor systems. The propellers chosen for this initial set of tests were selected from four popular quadrotors. Besides testing the propellers provided with the aircraft, propellers that are sold as replacements from third-party companies were …

Wing Deflection Analysis Of 3d Printed Wind Tunnel Models, Matthew G. Paul

Master's Theses

This work investigates the feasibility of producing small scale, low aerodynamic loading wind tunnel models, using FDM 3D printing methods, that are both structurally and aerodynamically representative in the wind tunnel. To verify the applicability of this approach, a 2.07% scale model of the NASA CRM was produced, whose wings were manufacturing using a Finite Deposition Modeling 3D printer. Experimental data was compared to numerical simulations to determine percent difference in wake distribution and wingtip deflection for multiple configurations.

Numerical simulation data taken in the form of CFD and FEA was used to validate data taken in the wind tunnel …

Deployable Antenna For Cubesat, Mackenzie Thomas Lennon, Caleb Andrew Barber, David Matthew Galves

Mechanical Engineering

This project is a proof-of-concept ground model of a large deployable antenna designed for the small space requirements of CubeSats. This small deployment module is designed to fit a 2 m by 1 m reflective antenna inside a storage volume of with the dimensions 20 cm by 20 cm x 40 cm. The reflector will be deployed to a parabolic shape with the goal of modeling the reflector necessary for high frequency communication. Because this module is designed as a proof-of-concept for the deployable parabolic reflector specifically, no electrical components will be incorporated and will just focus on the deployment …

Hybrid Buoyant Aircraft: Future Stol Aircraft For Interconnectivity Of The Malaysian Islands, Anwar Ul Haque, Waqar Asrar, Ashraf Ali Omar, Erwin Sulaeman, Jaffar Syed Mohamed Ali

Journal of Aviation Technology and Engineering

Hybrid buoyant aircraft are new to the arena of air travel. They have the potential to boost the industry by leveraging new emerging lighter-than-air (LTA) and heavier-than-air (HTA) technologies. Hybrid buoyant aircraft are possible substitutes for jet and turbo-propeller aircraft currently utilized in aviation, and this manuscript is a country-specific (Malaysia) analysis to determine their potential market, assessing the tourism, business, agricultural, and airport transfer needs of such vehicles. A political, economic, social, and technological factors (PEST) analysis was also conducted to determine the impact of PEST parameters on the development of buoyant aircraft and to assess all existing problems …

Low Cost Missions For The Unordinary Innovators, Robert J. Twiggs

Robert "Bob" Twiggs STEM Education Collection

A PowerPoint Presentation created by Professor Bob Twiggs titled "Low Cost Missions for the Unordinary Innovators" from May 23, 2017.

Literature Review: Biomimetic And Conventional Aircraft Wing Tips, Naseeb Ahmed Siddiqui, Waqar Asrar, Erwin Sulaeman

International Journal of Aviation, Aeronautics, and Aerospace

This paper is an attempt to summarize the effect of wing tip devices employed by birds, as well as aeronautical engineers in the past to improve the performance characteristics of aircraft. The focus is on reduction of the induced drag or drag due to lift also known as inviscid drag. This paper will provide an insight on both biomimetic and conventional wing tip approaches to reduce the induced drag. Prior analysis and experiments on the aerodynamics of airplane performance due to both these separate studies have been discussed. The needs of the industry and their past inventions have been described …

Performance Analysis Of A Coaxial Helicopter In Hover And Forward Flight, Stanrich D. Fernandes

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

The performance of a coaxial rotor system has been analyzed by establishing a proper basis of comparison between a conventional single rotor and coaxial rotor. An attempt has also been made to better understand the complicated aerodynamic interactions associated with coaxial rotor wakes by using a free-vortex methodology (FVM). The FVM is a Lagrangian-based wake convection methodology, which solves for the evolution of the vortical wake produced by the rotor blades under the influence of an external flow. The extent to which the two rotors interact with each other was found to be highly dependent on the inter-rotor spacing. To …

Battery Centric Serial Hybrid Aircraft Performance And Design Space, Lenny Gartenberg

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

The design space and flight envelope of a battery centric serial hybrid aircraft has been analytically derived. The formulation assumes cruising flight only and all energy available is used. The flight envelope can be generated for any conventional propeller driven serial hybrid aircraft. The advantageous combination of an electric motor and controllable-pitch electric propeller was also explored. The results are used to be able to control efficiency and noise at constant thrust and therefore constant airspeed. Manufacturer provided electric motor and propeller data is used for efficiency purposes. Since the electric motor is virtually silent compared to the propeller, published …

Structural Design Of A Business Jet Winglet, Jaime Gutierrez

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Structural sizing of a winglet for the Falcon 10 was performed and is presented here. The aerodynamic profile of the winglet was taken from a previous study, which predicted an increase in range of 3.3% with an estimated weight increase of 52 kg. An investigation of the current structure layouts and materials used in the industry was conducted. Six loading cases were analyzed to identify the most critical for the winglet, found to be negative and positive sideslip and gust. A finite element model was developed and used to size the structure. A fabrication process and assembly is described and …

Flying Simple Experiments In Space, Robert J. Twiggs

Robert "Bob" Twiggs STEM Education Collection

A PowerPoint presentation created by Professor Bob Twiggs titled "Flying Simple Experiments in Space" from April 28, 2017.

Providing A Unique Stem Education Opportunity With A Five Day Eleomission, Robert J. Twiggs, Amin Djamshidpour, Matt Craft, Dale Nash, Hank Voss

Robert "Bob" Twiggs STEM Education Collection

A PowerPoint presentation created by Robert Twiggs, Amin Djamshidpour, Matt Craft, Dale Nash, and Hank Voss titled "Providing a Unique STEM Education Opportunity with a Five Day ELEOMission" from April 26, 2017.

System And Method For Robust Nonlinear Regulation Control Of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Synthetic Jet Actuators, Vladimir Golubev, William Mackunis

Publications

An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is provided with a plurality of synthetic jet actuators and a nonlinear robust controller. The controller compensates for uncertainty in a mathematic model that describes the function of the synthetic jet actuators. Compensation is provided by the use of constant feedforward best guess estimates that eliminate the need for more highly computationally burdensome approaches such as the use of time-varying adaptive parameter estimation algorithms.

System And Method For Robust Nonlinear Regulation Control Of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Synthetic Jet Actuators, Vladimir V. Golubev, William Mackunis

Publications

An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is provided with a plurality of synthetic jet actuators and a nonlinear robust controller. The controller compensates for uncertainty in a mathematic model that describes the function of the syn­thetic jet actuators. Compensation is provided by the use of constant feedforward best guess estimates that eliminate the need for more highly computationally burdensome approaches such as the use of time-varying adaptive param­eter estimation algorithms.